He craned his neck and saw nothing behind them. Since the skimmer had been out of sight, uneasiness gnawed at his stomach.
"Parker, what is it?" Jan whispered over his shoulder.
Parker ignored her. He focused his gaze toward the mouth of a small cave and pressed his binoculars against his eyes, searching the area for any forms of activity. Nothing was there. Zooming in on the ground, he couldn’t distinguish any footprints. It seemed deserted.
"Stay here while I check out the mouth of the cave," he said, starting to get up. Chloe put her hand on his shoulder.
"We’ll all go. We can’t split up," Chloe replied. "Don’t argue with me."
"Follow closely behind me," he muttered. "Jan, watch our back and make sure Chloe is safe. Worry about me second."
"I can look after myself, thank you," Chloe protested.
"You are a target. Don’t argue with me."
As he crept down to the mouth of the cave, Parker darted his eyes in all directions, scanning for clues or signs of trouble over the eerie howl of bitter winds. Chloe had her hand on his back. He heard her breathing becoming heavier.
When he reached the cave, he ran his hand through the sandy gravel and scooped up a handful of the smooth pebbles. "These are beaded and blackened, like soot." He showed the girls his hand.
"So?" Chloe said. Her gaze shifted to the cave entrance.
"So, someone landed a vehicle with repulse engines. The heat beads the jagged pebbles. I don’t know how, either. It isn’t wide enough, but a ship is definitely landing here."
Jan spoke. "Anything in that cave?"
He shook his head. "No, but it’s dark. We’ll have to go inside."
"The metalor is in there. We are close," Chloe said, standing up and moving toward the mouth of the cave.
Just as Chloe stood before the cave, the ground started to shake. To her left, Jan’s balance shifted, and she fell. Chloe managed to hold her balance. Her body swayed with the ground as the shaking increased.
From out of the cave, a spotlight blazed. Chloe held her hand up to block the blinding light. Her teeth locked together, expecting the worst. A strong whiff of burning xenon fuel wafted out.
And the next moment, her fears matched her expectations.
The cave mouth exploded, blasting it everywhere. Chloe stepped back, trying to avoid the pelting of debris, but her foot stumbled on a loose rock, and she slipped to the ground. A great roar shook her body. Frightened, she curled into a fetal position, trying to avoid the horrific rumbling over her head.
The dull gray hull of a ship streaked above her. As it moved past her, she glimpsed MSA markings on the tail of the ship shining against the sun. But before she had a chance to identify the ship, dust billowed along the ground and swept over her body. Dirt entered her mouth first, and then her squinting eyes began to sting as small fragments of rock blew into her face. She recoiled, trying to protect herself with her arms.
After a long minute, the next thing she heard was Parker’s voice. He was bending over her.
"Are you okay?"
"Is it over?" she said. "Where did the ship go?"
"Are you okay?"
"Nothing hit me." She struggled to get to one knee, then paused to survey her new surroundings. The sharpness of a plasma explosion forced her nose to cringe. She looked toward the wider-mouthed cave.
"They abandoned it," Jan said.
Parker cocked one eye toward her. "They wouldn’t abandon the metalor just like that. They’ll be back, and shortly, with more people."
"That was the metalor," Chloe said, her shoulders drooping. "It was all on that ship. I don’t feel anything around here anymore."
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Jan said, coming up from behind them. "They left equipment behind. You can see clear down the cave from the left side of the mouth."
"With the metalor gone, we should head back to the ship," said Parker.
"Look out!" Jan said as she dashed toward Parker and pushed him to the ground. The ground kicked up dust blooms behind them.
A blast of angry images flooded Chloe’s mind. She turned to the source—two minds with the intent to kill. She couldn’t pinpoint them. The sun blazed in that direction, making it hard to see anything. Then she caught their silhouettes against the crimson cliffs. A pair of men, extending their pistols at them, rushed down the path.
"Into the cave," she demanded.
Jan drew her pistols, fired six quick rounds, and forced the men to dodge behind the nearest boulder.
Entering, they moved immediately toward the back, trying to find cover. Jan continued to fire out of the mouth of the cave in random intervals, trying to keep the men out. Chloe grabbed her ears as each shot echoed with a thunderous clap, hoping they weren’t trapped.
Parker used his flashlight to scan the cave for an exit or flanking men.
"Who are those guys?" Jan shouted over toward him. "They looked MSA, but I didn’t see a symbol."
"They’re MSA," Chloe replied.
"What are we going to do now?" Parker said, spinning around, scanning for anything to help them. "We’re trapped. We should have stayed toward the front of the cave and fought them off."
Chloe’s breaths shortened. "We didn’t know how many they had or if they were flanking. I figured this area would be clear because the ship blasted out of here. There should be a hovercar in here somewhere because they have to get back to Zephyria somehow."
He groaned. "I don’t like being trapped. Let’s move backward and find another way out of here."
"What if this is the only way out of here?"
"Then we’ll be in for a tough exit," he said bluntly. They moved, slowly, bent to one knee and shuffling backward, to the back. He kept swiveling his head, looking for an exit.
Facing toward the mouth of the cave, he was on the left side, crouched behind a series of rail tracks. Jan and Chloe were to his right, pressing themselves behind metal drums. There wasn’t much for them to do but wait for the enemy to make a move from the outside. He focused on the sunlit mouth of the cave. The dust swirled counterclockwise along the lips, causing an odd refraction of the light, making it hard for him to focus on anything solid.
He drew his rifle and fired a shot at a shadow waving along the cave wall. The shadow jumped back and out of his vision.
Jan raised two fingers, signaling she confirmed seeing two men.
"I don’t like us here," he said. He slid back and flashed his light against the back of the wall, rolling it across the red surface. He found a dark spot and scuttled to it. The shadow hid a doorway, and immediately he pulled on the handle. It didn’t budge, and then he noticed the padlock as it clanged against the door.
The clap and pop of pistol fire echoed down the cave and back toward him. He winced with each loud clap in his ear.
The padlock felt like normal metal; there was no orange glitter along the surface or the dull finish associated with metalor. He took a step back and fired his rifle. The spark of the bullet hitting the metal burst out toward him. He turned his body to avoid it.
When he turned back, the padlock was on the ground, and the door creaked open. He stuck his rifle through the crack and kicked the door open.
An empty tunnel awaited him. Every twenty paces, an overhead lamp lit the immediate area around it. Along the walls, he could see the reinforced metal struts pushed up to support the massive weight above it.
But most importantly, it was their exit.
He moved over to Chloe, grabbed her by the waist and pulled her toward the doorway.
"Jan," he said. "Come on, we are getting out of here."
She fired a final salvo of bullets and ran behind him down the tunnel behind Chloe. He grabbed the padlock from the ground, pulled the door shut behind him, and wedged what remained of the shackle into the hasp on the other side. With a heave, he tested it. It held firmly.
He pivoted his foot and bolted down the tunnel to catch up.
As they traveled down t
unnel after tunnel, the labyrinth seemed to have no end. By this time, he had moved ahead of the girls and came to a sudden stop beside one of the many mining carts spread throughout the tunneling system. Only when he stopped did the draft, coming down the tunnel ahead of him, indicate the exit was closer.
He took in a deep breath. The air was stale and poorly circulated, and he struggled to get enough air through his mask.
He was about to move when he heard footsteps. He spun to his side. Either the two soldiers were too startled to shoot or they had orders to take them alive—he did not know, but their hesitation cost them. He fired two shots into the necks of the men, dropping them to the ground before their rifles could rise.
"Come on," he ordered.
He yanked on Chloe’s hand and dragged her up the tunnel. Jan scrambled to her feet and chased after them. A panic rushed through him, his mind racing, and the tingle of nerves in his abdomen churned enough acid to melt a bucket of nails. If anything happened to Chloe, Seth would never forgive him.
And it was her fault, too. Her determination to find the metalor cache had almost killed them. He should have planned better. He should have forced her to stay in Aethpis, but she always got her way with him. Maybe it was the innocence in her eyes or her unconditional friendship, but he had to help her. The fire behind her eyes demanded his help.
Long strides took him up the tunnel in a matter of seconds. With relief in his heart, he saw the light of the sun, and he ran to it.
"Parker, they weren’t the two guys from the cliff. Wait!" Chloe screamed at the entrance to the tunnel. He turned toward her, and before he reacted, she was already lunging toward him. The full weight of her body tackled him to the ground. The patter of gunfire ricocheted behind them against the wall of the cave.
In the same motion, she rolled off him and returned a single shot to the chest of the gunman, sending him to the ground gasping for air. Parker scrambled to his feet and slammed the butt of his rifle into the man’s head.
The soldier was dead.
Chloe came out of the tunnel and scanned the area for any more MSA soldiers. She saw none and waved them out.
Jan moved ahead of her. "This might be the lower path we didn’t take. Look, I can see the skimmer from here. They must have seen us land and followed the path to flank us."
"That guy…was one of the two who initially shot at us. I recognize him," Chloe said. "Maybe his friend went to our skimmer."
"Let’s hope not," Parker said. "Come on, let’s get moving."
They arrived at the skimmer without further incident. He found a series of boot prints made around it. When he searched for sabotage, the panel to the repulse modulation unit was ripped open, and the computer circuits were smashed.
"Jinx," he muttered. "Jan, I want you to cover the path, and Chloe, get the skimmer ready for liftoff while I get the spare and replace it."
Jan knelt beside the front of the skimmer, using the craft to hide herself from anyone coming down the path. Parker dug frantically through the spare part crates. He knew the circuit board would be in here. They always supplied an extra one on these skimmers. It was law, at least in the old government.
After rummaging through the last of the crates, he found the circuit toward the bottom and stuffed all the spare parts back into the holding compartment. "Found it," he called out, but the others were busy with their assignments.
He cursed. The saboteurs had torn off the old circuit board, leaving only the jagged remains snapped off into the housing.
He removed his gloves, exposing his hands to the bitter cold. He dug his fingers into the slot, trying to finger out the broken pieces. Splinters and cuts pained his hand as he tried to remove as much of the debris from the old circuit boards as possible. On his first attempt, he was unable to smash the new board in. A small piece of the old board was still wedged into the slot. He cursed viciously under his breath; he thought he could force it in, but the finicky circuits were too difficult to rig.
Water vapor disappeared into the air with each of his deep breaths. But he didn’t have time to reflect on his panic. He needed to act. He needed something to pry out the remains of the circuit board. His fingers were too raw and soft to force it. On the ground, he thrashed his hand through the beaded rock. A jab to his index finger let him know he found what he wanted, a sharp rock.
"We have company!" Jan screamed. "Up the path."
Parker turned and saw two men coming down. He drew his rifle and fired several shots, sending the two men scrabbling behind a pair of boulders. "Come around to this side of the ship. You will have a better angle," he called to Jan.
Jan hurried around the ship and trained her gun on the two boulders the men had ducked behind.
He drove the rock up the slot, coercing the debris out with a series of wiggles and scraps. He slid the circuit in and looked toward Chloe for confirmation.
She must have expected it because her thumb was jabbing upward. He turned his gun toward the rocks. "Jan, get in."
He fired more shots of warning toward the men, creating enough time for Jan to jump up and into the cockpit seat. He followed her.
Even before the canopy shut, Chloe had the skimmer hovering off the surface. Parker’s legs dangled over the side, and he pulled them in with one last heave.
As soon as the canopy clicked shut, Chloe turned the ship around and blasted off away from the mons.
"Yes!" Chloe yelled in excitement. "Is everyone okay?"
"Fine," Jan and Parker both replied.
"That was a close one. I hope we have more luck at Ganges Chasma."
"What do you mean, more luck?" he exclaimed. "You are turning this ship back to Aethpis on the double."
"No chance," she said. "We came out here to fulfill a mission, and that is what we will do."
"Maybe Parker is right about this," Jan said. "We can’t risk you like that again."
"Risk me?" Chloe blasted back. "This mission is about finding a large sum of metalor so the MSA can’t restore their weapons cache. Not to feel sorry for me."
"Who is sorry for you?" Parker said. "Remember the explosion outside of the mouth of the cave…that almost ended you real fast."
"I can let you out at the next stop, but I’m going to Ganges Chasma with or without you. I’m insisting, as your friend."
"Don’t pull any friendship guilt on us," Jan scolded her. "You know we will help you out, but don’t guilt us. I don’t like it."
"I’m going. Guilt or not," she said, with a finality that quieted the cockpit for some time. "Parker, was there enough metalor there to be Minister Cortez’s?"
"I don’t think so. Even if that was pure metalor without the iron backing, the amount listed on the invoice was substantially more. That was either part of it or something entirely different." Jinx, he thought. Her question was his opportunity to lie and get her back to Aethpis. But he couldn’t lie to her. She would know. He didn’t know how, but she always saw through him.
She smiled. "The feeling I get from Ganges Chasma must be it. It is the last possible location. If it is not, then the invoice was either fabricated, or someone has used it already."
"Or it isn’t on the planet, or we don’t have a sample of metalor from that shipment. It could be anything," Parker said firmly, with enough bite in his tone to let them know what had just happened agitated him.
Chloe shrugged. "We will have more luck this time. I can feel it."
Chapter 35
"They accepted the peace treaty," Samantha said, running her fingers along the datapad as she closed off the video recording. "That was too easy."
"If you look over the treaty," Gwen said, "you’ll see that the Alliance gave us all of our requests, plus more. They only seemed to want control of the entire Aethpis crater, which is understandable."
"I still don’t like the idea of giving up control of the crater. You realize we will never get back in once we withdraw."
"It’s okay. Nothing of interest is in there except the
people. If we know where they are located, we have them packed up into a nice little container. It will be easier to track them. As of now, they are spread out all over the surrounding area."
"Good point. They’ll flock back to Aethpis once it is safe to return."
"You’re correct about Sarah’s haste," Gwen said with her lips pressed against the steeple of her intertwined fingers, as she appraised the cease-fire treaty once again. "If I know Sarah, she doesn’t like the idea of a split Mars. The remarks in her message indicated as much."
"I got the same feeling, but then why would she do it?"
"Samantha, you are my tactical officer," she said with a smirk. "Don’t you see? They are trying to trick us into thinking that we are getting our way. They plan to make us comfortable and then strike. Are the defense systems fully operational?"
"By the end of the day, we should have enough power in the capacitors. I have everyone on triple time."
"Once they decide on making their move, we’ll be ready for them."
Samantha smiled.
"The time for peace has come." Gwen acknowledged the transmission and sent her signature back to Sarah with her full support of the cease-fire treaty.
Mars was at peace again.
Part III
Chapter 36
Seth awoke in a dry and dimly lit room.
Gradually, the initial haze of his unconsciousness began to wear off and was replaced by a more acute awareness. The room was no bigger than a standard cabin on a cruise ship. His eyes focused tighter against the far wall, sharpening onto the rough finish of a rock formation. He was in a cave.
Instinctively, he reached for his breathing mask and discovered someone had removed it. He took a short breath and realized he could breathe just fine.
He sat up, but his head spun, so he lowered it toward his knees to bear the dizziness. The stiffness in his joints, especially his shoulder, and the horrific taste in his mouth implied he had been out for some time.
Another minute passed before the clouding in his mind dissipated enough for him to concentrate. The thought of returning to Chloe tickled his desires. He hadn’t forgotten her angry words when they last parted. She shouldn’t have expected anything else from the situation and should have realized he wouldn’t put her in harm’s way.
Lunara: The Original Trilogy Page 58